Arduino and newer, more powerful boards such as the BeagleBoard Bone ( http://beagleboard.org/bone ) and much-hyped Raspberry PI ( http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ) are causing a revolution in hardware development. Software underwent a democratization with Open Source / Free Software that made construction of large, powerful, complecated systems possible by individuals and small groups. Similarly, buidling embedded systems, robotics, and other ways of connecting computers to the real world are now becoming much cheaper and manageable. (See http://blog.makezine.com/2011/02/10/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here... )

We will meet to discuss these things, trade ideas, and talk about interfacing Drupal to the real world. We'll have some example hardware for you to poke at. Join us !